Illinois and Michigan Canal Locks and Towpath | |
 A scene at Seneca, Illinois | |
   | |
| Nearest city | Joliet, Illinois |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 41°34′11″N88°4′11″W / 41.56972°N 88.06972°W /41.56972; -88.06972 |
| Area | 1,130 acres (4.6 km2)[1] |
| Built | 1848 |
| NRHP reference No. | 66000332 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966[2] |
| Designated NHL | January 29, 1964[3] |
TheIllinois and Michigan Canal connected theGreat Lakes to theMississippi River. InIllinois, it ran 96 miles (154 km) from theChicago River inBridgeport,Chicago to theIllinois River atLaSalle-Peru. The canal crossed theChicago Portage, and helped establish Chicago as the transportation hub of the United States, before therailroad era. It was opened in 1848. Its function was partially replaced by the wider and deeperChicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in 1900, and it ceased transportation operations with the completion of theIllinois Waterway in 1933.
Illinois and Michigan Canal Locks and Towpath, a collection of eight engineering structures and segments of the canal betweenLockport and LaSalle-Peru, was designated aNational Historic Landmark in 1964.[1][3][4]
Portions of the canal have been filled in.[1] Much of the former canal, near theHeritage Corridor transit line, has been preserved as part of the Illinois and Michigan CanalNational Heritage Corridor.
In the 19th century,canals were an important mode of transportation. The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected theMississippi Basin to theGreat Lakes Basin. The potential canal route influenced Illinois's north border. TheErie Canal and the Illinois and Michigan Canal cemented cultural and trade ties to theNortheast rather than theSouth. Before the canal, agriculture in the region was limited tosubsistence farming. The canal made agriculture in northern Illinois profitable by opening connections to eastern markets.
The first known Europeans to travel thearea,Father Marquette andLouis Joliet, went through theChicago Portage on their return trip. Joliet remarked that with a canal they could remove the need toportage and the French could create an empire spanning the continent.
The first quantitative survey of the portage was performed in 1816 byStephen H. Long. It was on the basis of these measurements that he was able to make a specific proposal for a canal.[5]
With severalslave states recently admitted to the Union,Nathaniel Pope andNinian Edwards saw the opportunity to makeIllinois a state. They proposed moving the border northward from the southern tip of Lake Michigan to allow the canal to be within a single state. They believed that the canal would firmly align Illinois with the free states and so Congress granted themstatehood even though Illinois did not meet the population requirements.
In 1824,Samuel D. Lockwood, one of the first commissioners of the canal, was given the authorization to hire contractors to survey a route for the canal to follow.[6]
Construction on the canal began in 1836, although it was stopped for several years due to anIllinois state financial crisis related to thePanic of 1837. The Canal Commission had a grant of 284,000 acres (115,000 ha) of federal land which it sold at $1.25 per acre ($310/km2) to finance the construction. Still, money had to be borrowed fromEastern United States andBritish investors to finish the canal.
Most of the canal work was done byIrish immigrants whopreviously worked on theErie Canal. The work was considered dangerous and many workers died, although no official records exist to indicate how many. The Irish immigrants who toiled to build the canal were often derided as a sub-class and were treated very poorly by other citizens of the city.
The canal was finished in 1848[7] at a total cost of $6,170,226. Chicago MayorJames Hutchinson Woodworth presided over the opening ceremony. Pumps were used to draw water to fill the canal near Chicago, which was soon supplemented by water from theCalumet Feeder Canal. The feeder was supplied by water from the Calumet River and originated inBlue Island, Il. TheDuPage River provided water farther south. In 1871 the canal was deepened to speed up the current and to improvesewage disposal.
The canal was eventually 60 feet (18 m) wide and 6 feet (1.8 m) deep, withtowpaths constructed along each edge to permit mules to be harnessed to tow barges along the canal. Towns were planned out along the path of the canal spaced at intervals corresponding to the length that the mules could haul the barges. It had seventeenlocks and fouraqueducts to cover the 140-foot (43 m) height difference between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River. From 1848 to 1852 the canal was a popular passenger route, but passenger service ended in 1853 with the opening of theChicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad that ran parallel to the canal. The canal had its peak shipping year in 1882 and remained in use until 1933.
Experiencing a remarkable recovery from the devastatingGreat Chicago Fire of 1871, Chicago rebuilt rapidly along the shores of the Chicago River. The river was especially important to the development of the city since all wastes from houses, farms, the stockyards, and other industries could be dumped into the river and carried out into Lake Michigan.
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The lake, however, was also the source of drinking water. During a tremendous storm in 1885, the rainfall washed refuse from the river, especially from the highly pollutedBubbly Creek, far out into the lake (the city water intakes are located 2 miles (3.2 km) offshore). Althoughno epidemics occurred, the Chicago Sanitary District (nowThe Metropolitan Water Reclamation District) was created by the Illinois legislature in 1889 in response to this close call.[8]
This new agency devised a plan to construct channels and canals to reverse the flow of the rivers away from Lake Michigan and divert the contaminated water downstream where it could be diluted as it flowed into theDes Plaines River and eventually the Mississippi.
In 1892, the direction of part of the Chicago River was reversed by theArmy Corps of Engineers with the result that the river and much of Chicago's sewage flowed into the canal instead of intoLake Michigan. The complete reversal of the river's flow was accomplished when theSanitary and Ship Canal was opened in 1900.
It was replaced in 1933 by theIllinois Waterway, which remains in use.
The actual origin site of the Illinois and Michigan Canal has been converted into a nature park that integrates history, ecology and art to communicate the Canal's importance in the development of Chicago. In 2003 the Chicago Park District, in cooperation with the I & M Canal Association, hired Conservation Design Forum to develop plans to convert thebrownfield site into a landscape that provided for passive recreational uses in a landscape setting with native plant species. Interpretive panels built into a wall along a bike trail were designed by local high school art students.[9] The plans also called on landscape stabilization techniques to repair a significantly degraded shoreline (water levels can fluctuate as much as 5 feet).
Today much of the canal is a long, thinlinear park with canoeing and a 62.5-mile (100.6 km) hiking and biking trail (constructed on the alignment of the mule tow paths). It also includes museums and historical canal buildings. It was designated the firstNational Heritage Corridor byUS Congress in 1984.
Many towns in Northern Illinois owe their existence directly to the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Lockport, Morris, Ottawa, and LaSalle wereplatted by the Canal Commissioners to raise funds for the canal's construction. From east to west the towns along the path of the canal include:
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{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help) andAccompanying 27 photos, undated. (2.47 MB)| Topics | |
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